


titanium

by badgerterritory



Category: Emelan - Tamora Pierce, Pacific Rim (2013), Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Gen, evvy definitely has a crush on daja probably, the pr au nobody asked for but we all needed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-20 23:23:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4806119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badgerterritory/pseuds/badgerterritory
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rosethorn and Briar came home from their trip to Asia with a small girl named Evvy. They didn’t say anything about what happened.</p><p>It didn’t take long for them to learn what happened.</p>
            </blockquote>





	titanium

**Author's Note:**

> this combines the tortall and emelan universes! i have a few more ideas for fics in the au, so expect them. 
> 
> somehow this happened because i wanted sandry to have a dance party to taylor swift.

Rosethorn and Briar came home from their trip to Asia with a small girl named Evvy. They didn’t say anything about what happened. Seeing the total lack of news, nobody asked questions. Sandry bundled the girl up in one of her special blankets while her sisters attended to Briar, and Lark coddled her lover.

In the absence of news, or the trio telling anything that happened, life slowly went back to normal. Sandry danced and sang to whatever pop sensation she was in love with. Daja worked on her machines. Tris read and learned. Briar tended to his plants. And as they relaxed, the younger ones filtered back to their own home. Briar left Evvy in the care of Rosethorn, with the promise to visit her often.

It didn’t take long for them to learn what happened.

*             *             *

Sandry was dancing to Taylor Swift when Evvy came in, silent as ever. As far as anyone knew, she was twelve. Born in and orphaned by the first kaiju attacks. She was absorbed by one of the many human trafficking rings that took advantages of the cracks in society, escaped on her own, and then was rescued from the streets by Briar and Rosethorn. That much Sandry had gotten out of her.

Sandry sensed her almost immediately, but saw no reason to stop dancing. Instead, she swept Evvy up to dance with her, which the girl did for a little while. When she released a giggling, giddy Evvy, the girl stumbled to a chair and sat down heavily, continuing to watch Sandry.

Daja came in soon, covered in sweat and various forms of grease and grime, carrying her toolbox. Tris trailed behind her, nose stuck in a book and glasses slipping perilously low on her face. Sandry could hear Briar in the hallway, arguing on his phone. Evvy perked right up when she saw Daja and Tris, her eagerness to help Daja tempered by her sudden shyness. Sandry noted this with interest, and danced her way over to her foster sisters. “Dance,” she ordered Tris. She got a flat _No_ for her trouble, and she looked eagerly at Daja next.

“I’m covered in my job,” Daja said. “Let me clean up first, at least.” She disappeared toward the shower. Tris went toward the small library she called her room, not breaking eye contact with the pages. Briar tried to sneak past her, but Sandry caught him by the collar of his ridiculous jacket.

“No,” Briar said, trying to squirm out of the jacket. He suddenly found it a little too tight around his shoulders as Evvy giggled at him and Sandry pulled him firmly toward her. “Get Evvy to dance with you, dammit,” Briar growled.

“I already did,” Evvy said, cheerfully as ever. Sandry didn’t say anything, just gave him the kitten eyes. They were far more effective than puppy eyes, and for use only in the direst situations. Briar sighed and danced with her as the Maroon 5 song ended and one by Rachel Platten came on. He was a terrible dancer, but they all forgave him for it. She got two songs out of him before Evvy joined back in and Daja appeared again.

“I’m done,” Briar announced, heading towards his room. He was grumbling about girls making him dance, but Sandry knew how happy communal dance time made him.

Daja was a terrible dancer too, but she made up for it with her cheer and self-conscious enthusiasm. Sandry noted the way Evvy looked at Daja like she was seeing the sun. _I think she has a crush on you_ , she informed Daja.

 _I have a crush on me,_ Daja replied with a grin. She twirled Evvy once, then guided her back to a seat. She was breathing heavily. _I’ll talk to her later._

Sandry was pretty much all danced out when the radio cut out. She dropped to the floor with a huff. “I don’t think Pasco dances half as much as we do,” she was beginning to say, when the radio said, “It’s just been announced.”

Daja and Sandry raised their heads at that; it was the president’s voice. Evvy curled in on herself.

“It’s just been announced that the Pan Pacific Defense Corps has been re-established, with the opening of a new rift in the Pacific Ocean. Those on the coasts are urged to move inland. Since the rift’s sighting a week ago, there has been a single kaiju, which made land in China and killed hundreds of thousands before it was brought down by one of the few remaining operational Jaegers, Dancing Dove. Pilots Alanna Trebond and George Cooper were officially reinstated and made heads of the Jaeger program. Please, in this trying time, remember that we are all humans, and we will prevail together.”

They didn’t hear the end of the broadcast. They were too busy focusing on Evvy as she had a panic attack.

*             *             *

It turned out that Rosethorn was actually a Jaeger pilot, once upon a time. It was how she got the brain damage that slurred her speech: Her copilot died, and she piloted the mech solo until the kaiju was dead. They were afraid she was dead, too, but they were able to revive her despite her being dead several minutes. Nobody was quite sure how it happened.

She returned to the program and was reinstated without much fanfare. Lark joined the PPDC as well, following her love. Which left the children with some predicaments. Mainly, that of Evvy. They couldn’t let her fall into the system, but she couldn’t really follow them into the PPDC, where they all agreed they wanted to go.

In the end, a kaiju made their decision for them. They barely evacuated before a kaiju destroyed most of their city, brought down in the end by Rose Weave, Lark and Rosethorn’s Jaeger. They went to the PPDC.

*             *             *

Alanna hated politics, and she especially hated not being able to get into her Jaeger. But someone had to direct them, and if it was anyone it might as well be her. George managed the intelligence, and she managed the strategy.

She got out of a call in time to get another one, from San Francisco. Something required her attention, and the woman who called wasn’t forthcoming with details. She only spared a single glance for Faithful, who was washing himself on the chair. “I don’t suppose you have any information?” she asked. He just switched to his other paw, dedicated to his normal cat routine, apparently.

So Alanna sighed and got on a plane.

When she arrived in America, she was ushered to a room with a two-way mirror showing a room with four young adults. They were sitting in a circle, all relaxing. Three girls, and one boy. One of the girls was reading, and the other three had their eyes closed. She was about to ask why she was present when someone she recognized from the news entered: Rosethorn, the infamous solo pilot. Her new pilot was behind her, hands behind her back. A scientist bustled in behind them.

Rosethorn cleared her throat. “This isn’t entirely necessary. Hand them a set of Jaegers and get it over with.”

The scientist glanced at Rosethorn and immediately away. Alanna couldn’t really blame her; the woman was intimidating, even to her. The officer that called Alanna said, “This is necessary. These four children are… remarkable.”

That was the scientist’s cue. She said, “These four children are the foster children of Rosethorn and Lark. Sandrilene Toren, Trisana Chandler, Briar Moss, and Daja Kisubo. They show a remarkable gift for drift compatibility. Almost… preternatural, in fact. As a scientist, I hesitate to use the word _telepathy_ , but…”

Alanna felt a chill running down her back. “Telepathy.” There was little in her voice to give her feelings away. Things like ghost drifting were well documented, but that fell well short of true telepathy. “You’re saying that these four are…” She couldn’t even get the word out.

Rosethorn let out a low growl and hit a button. “Briar. We need a demonstration.” The boy glanced toward the mirror and told Rosethorn, in no less than fifty cusses, what he thought of demonstrations. There was a small smile playing around her lips as she pressed the button again and said, “Your best chance into a mech is standing in this room, boy.”

Briar’s face lit up rather obviously, but he tamped it down after a moment. He stood, dusting himself off, sighed heavily, and exited the room. A moment later, he was in the room with Alanna. Closer, she could see he had fine, strong features, and there were tattoos on his hands. It was most likely the poor lighting, but they seemed to be moving.

He was talking to Rosethorn. “So what is it this time? I read a card? The pockets thing? Do I get to embarrass Tris again?”

The redhead, without lifting her eyes from the heavy book she was reading, raised her hand and flipped him off. The blonde reached over and lowered her hand without opening her eyes. The black girl was smiling.

Lark was shaking her head at him. “You shouldn’t antagonize your sisters.”

Rosethorn said, “Ma’am, if you’d turn out your pockets.”

Alanna made a show of being a good sport, pulling out her pockets to show they were empty. “Guess we’ll have to come up with something else,” she murmured lightly.

The blonde jumped up, dodging her sister’s attempt to physically restrain her, and strode over to the window. Alanna heard a quiet _oh boy_ from Briar as the girl started talking. “I know you might not believe in us, but that’s no reason to be rude! We’ve put up with all these stupid tests for days and days and days, and I’m sick of it! All we want to do is help! Briar and I can pilot a Jaeger, and Daja’s a really good mechanic, and Tris is super smart and also probably magic.” She lost a little bit of steam there, but then her eyes focused on Briar’s innocent face and she screeched, “ _Briar!_ Honestly!”

Red-faced, she stomped back to her sisters and sat down with a huff. She was grumbling a little, and Briar was grinning.

Alanna looked to Rosethorn. “I want to see them drifting.”

*             *             *

They were all being fitted with the headgear to drift. Tris was complaining just to complain: “I don’t know why I’m here, you and Briar are the ones who’re going to get in the robot, I’m certainly never going to drift. And I hate the stupid machine, anyways.”

“Sooner done, sooner finished,” Rosethorn said, and threw the switch that would initiate the process as soon as they were all properly outfitted.

Sandry was a little nervous. They’d only done this one other time, used a machine to supplement their natural connection, all four at once. It took them days to recover. But she let go of that as soon as she felt herself sinking into her siblings. Briar set the stage for them once again, a lot he played in as a kid. Sandry set up a game of hopscotch and they played until they were brought out of it.

For a few seconds, Sandry/Daja/Briar/Tris saw through four eyes, felt four bodies lurching forward and vomiting. Rosethorn remembered the last time, it seemed; there were four buckets. Identities started to separate. Sandry thought of thread and needle and the scarf she still had to finish knitting; Daja thought of metals and engines she wanted to work on; Briar thought of his greenhouse and the garden he was working on at base; Tris thought of storms and libraries. Within an hour, they were fully separate again and no longer retched when they met eyes.

Vaguely, Sandry heard words like “perfect synchronization” and “better than last time” and Rosethorn’s low, amused chuckle. “Always like to see you getting your ass kicked, boy,” she said to Briar. “But it’s good to see you’re getting better at this.”

“Evvy stays with us,” Briar said. “Tell them that’s our condition. Evvy stays with us.”

“And I want supplies for weaving and knitting and such,” Sandry added.

“I’ll see to it.”

*             *             *

Evvy had some choice words for Briar when they made it back to the hotel where they’d left her in the care of Father Crane, who left as soon as they opened the door, nearly sprinting out. Evvy had a few words for his back, as well. When she was all cussed out and red in the face, she stomped over and gave all four of them huge hugs.

She understood why she had to be left back, but she didn’t really like it. And she didn’t like being left in the care of Father Crane, who was obnoxious and liked plants too much. “We’re pilots,” Briar said cheerfully. “Daja’s getting started with the mechanics and engineers tomorrow, and Tris gets to put her big brain to use. And you get to stay on base.”

Evvy threw her arms around him again.


End file.
